Let the Races Begin!
Let the Races Begin! 'is the first episode of ''Mysteries of the Past: A Bizarre Adventure. It was released on March 14th, 2019 and is succeeded by Jumping the Gunn. Plot “''Three years after Mayor Justin Lawson's downfall, Concordia had technogically and ecomically advanced thanks to the resources available to create the near-utopia the founder desired and the prosperous technology the government is willing to buy. With crime rates lowered and people recovering from the injustice Lawson created, machines had been designed by police to look over crimes that these people may commit. Mayor Brimsten and Commissioner Rike has served as replacements for both the Concordian City Council and Concordian Police Department respectively. The Concordian Flying Squad had been known as heroes of Concordia for their hard and unrelenting work through the past three years, even having a replacement for my late love, Charlie, and another one willing to help the Squad. While we can't change the past, we can build ourselves a better future. A new millennium means new beginnings.” — Madeline Erina Dupont née O'Malley, 1900 A huge innovated city is seen in a bird’s eye view. The view then goes down the vibrant city and has a look through all over the 10 districts, going through many buildings and the Concordian Flying Squad’s blimp having full sight of the headquarters. It then goes into a certain house with a red haired lady (Madeline O’Malley) dressing up. Maddie looks at the clock and realizes that she has 15 minutes left. After dressing up and calling the babysitter, Maddie quickly goes out of her house and drives her MadMobile. Upon arriving to the airship, she notices a poster saying, “The Great Concordian Race Across America! Starting in two weeks.” Maddie enters the ship, which is much larger than before, and grabs a time card and puts it in the machine. Being on time, Maddie sighs in relief and goes to the stairs. Entering an office saying Maddie O’Malley, Maddie sits and stares at a picture of her and Charles at their wedding day and another picture of Maddie holding George Dupont, Charles' and Maddie's son. She then notices a paper notes under her books, taking it out and reading it. The note reads “Madeline, the Chief is not here today. He’s in an important meeting with the Mayor today. I trust you to take care of his papers while you do your work. - Bontemps”. Saddened at first by her late husband, Maddie recomposes herself and goes to the Chief Wright’s office. 18 minutes later, Maddie expresses her surprise of her unexpected ability to complete the Chief’s paperwork quickly without experiencing fatigue. Not knowing what to do now with the work done, Maddie decides to snoop around the office to find something interesting. After looking through several cabinets and love notes from Bernadine Rochester, Maddie becomes bored and goes back to her office. For a split second, she suddenly sees a green figure but dismisses it as hallucination. Upon going back to her office, Maddie was surprised to see Mildred Takakura looking at the picture. When asked about her presence, an embarrassed Mildred says it’s nothing and runs back to her (previously Charlie’s) lab. In the airship’s smoking room labeled “Diego Alejandro Montoya Esteban del Lobo”, a man in a black hat is seen painting a picture of Concordia in the airship’s view and puts his signature on it, ''D.L., along with his insignia. After the deed is done, Diego inscribes a label “Concordia of the 20th Century” and places the painting on a table. He then dries it with rippling sparks on his hand and remembers something he’ve encountered before, an unknown stranger points his index finger and middle finger together at Diego before jumping and seemingly attacking him. Diego goes back to reality and searches through his drawer. After finding some cigarettes, Diego relaxes in a chair and smokes one. He then looks at a black and white group photo showing him, the player, Maddie, Charles, Issac, Rose, Viola, Dick, Evie, and Arthur along with Lawson, Highmore, and Katherine smiling near the airship. Diego looks at the year the photo was taken and sadly puts his finger over Charlie’s face. Diego glances to the sky and wonders what could have happened if Lawson never became mayor in the first place. Secret Agent Rook then enters Diego’s room, asking what is he doing. Diego, wanting no one to talk to him, leaves the room, to Rook’s confusion. Later, in Wolf Street park, a journalist writes on her notepad and tries to think of other stories. A poster boy is seen adding several posters of the “Great Concordian Race” and the journalist decides to ask him about the race. Answering her question, the boy says that the race will very huge and exciting that it will take place all across America. He also says it starts in two weeks. Curious, Katherine writes on her notepad and goes to her car to drive to the newly rebuilt Concordian Gazette building. Arriving at the 5th story, Katherine goes to her desk and quickly types the information about the “Great Concordian Race”. A bluish-gold car is seen driving by the Concordian Gazette and goes to Ivory Hill, the political heart of the city and where city hall used to be. After arriving to city hall, a man in a blue suit with a chief’s badge goes up the steps and meets the mayor. As Mayor Brimsten greets the Chief, Chief Wright ask about the Mayor’s reasons for calling him in. Brimsten converses with Arthur about the recent disappearances of Concordia’s worst prisoners, citing that they suddenly vanished. Arthur claims that the prisoners may have possibly escaped, but the Mayor questions him how disgraced Judge Dora Umbright was able to dissapear from solitary confinement despite the walls of the prison were strong as metal. A sweating Arthur takes a drink and reassures Mayor Brimsten that the Concordian Flying Squad will find the missing prisoners as soon as possible before leaving. An Italian woman is seen on a rooftop with a telescope looking over several people. She then a speeding car driving by the civilians with a police car chasing it. The woman climbs down from window to window and rides a steampunk motorbike to the car. A man near the driver sees the woman and tries to shoot her, but loses his aim when the car suddenly goes to a stop. It is then revealed that the wheels of the car have been instantly removed. A blade that is near the woman disappears, much to her confusion. A woman with a rifle calls out Giulietta’s name, revealed to be Rose Zhao. When Rose asks what happened to the wheels of the car, Giulietta responded that she doesn’t know. The police come by the capture the suspects and find multiple jewelry and money. They then reveal that the jewelry was missing weeks ago and the suspects captured were Malcolm Rochester’s supporters, who wanted to preserve the Rochester legacy and stole the jewelry and money to bail Malcolm out, only to be told by Rose that Malcolm was missing. The suspects, still believing that Malcolm is still in bars, laugh at and mock Rose before being taken away. Giulietta observes at the wheeless car and shows confusion over the wheels being popped off. She then leaves the area with Rose, who wants to find Evie. In the residence of the disgraced Horatio Rochester, Issac, Viola, and Bernadine are seen looking over a map of old Concordia which used to be owned mostly by the Rochesters. After talking about the history of the Rochesters, Bernadine expresses her sadness of how people like Lawson would hate her family so much that they would kill them and wishes that her uncle could have changed his ways. Issac looks at and drinks the tea made by Viola and a telephone rings. Bernadine goes to pick it up and hears about the “Great Concordian Race”. Later in Century Mile, Evie, Enzo, and Nicolas are seen in The Brass Compass drinking coffee and talking about the dismantlement of the dungeon Lawson used to imprison his political enemies. Nicolas also brings up that the Exo-Suit of the late Stanley Spark has been recently on production after the government confiscated and upgraded it. Evie even talks about the new Pistols and Petticoats novel coming out which is about a crippled man who compete in race across America with his Italian friend, much to Nicolas’ and Enzo’s delight. They then see through the window several charity people holding a flag labeled, “The Charles Dupont Foundation”. Evie expresses how proud she was about the foundation able to save the homeless and weak affected by Lawson’s rule. At the Grim Chapel district, Richard “Dick” Wells and Victor Frankenstein look over some yellow glowing ripples on the waters in the forest and take pictures of it. Dick then takes the water in a tube and finds sparks flickering in it. When Dick tries to call out Victor, he finds out the he was near a cemetery where he was placing the lighting rod on someone’s grave. Richard chastises Victor for desecrating a grave, but the mad scientist defends himself as a new way to return someone from the dead. The two men then leave, with the lighting rod stuck to the grave. Later, a purple lightning suddenly strikes the grave, with its engraving revealed: “''Kev O’Connell; 1877-1897; Died with a Unnecessary Death Sentence”. '' Later at Ivory Hill, Madeline drives her MadMobile and stops to see Issac and Marla with her adoptive children, Paris and Colette, at a park talking to each other with Viola with her parents playing croquet. She then sees Issac spinning a flower without his hands, impressing Marla. Suddenly, two people in mustaches confront Maddie, claiming that the landlords sent them to get her rent. Shocked at first, Maddie quickly realized that the two thugs aren’t from the landlord as she already bought her house and one of them have a pocket knife in his breast pocket. Annoyed with her talking, the men pull Maddie out of the vehicle and grab her with a pocket knife dangerously near her throat. A green spinning energy appears on the thug’s arm and twists it, releasing Maddie. The second thug tries to attack Maddie, only to be fisted in the chest by her. Humiliated and not wanting to see the other three men in a car seeing him like that, the pocket knife thug fires his gun at the Irish cop, but it misses upon reaching her head and yellow sparks appear on his twisted arm, electrocuting him. The three men come out of the car and fire at Madeline several times, with the bullets avoiding her no matter how close they are to her. It was revealed to be Issac who secretly made his gris-gris orbit around Maddie‘s body, making the bullets redirect to the ground. Turning around to see the culprits, an angered Madeline throws a rippling punch to the gunman’s face and delivers a hook to the other one’s jaw. The third gunman, at her mercy, tries to shoot her only to have his gun empty of bullets. A ghostly orb appears next to Maddie and dashes to the gunman’s chest, sending him flying to the thug’s car. A police car then arrives with both Constable Ramirez and beat cop George Blanton coming out of it, shocked of the defeated thugs being everywhere. Maddie nonchalantly goes to them and apprehends herself, going to the police car in the process. 3 days later, Arthur Wright and Lady Highmore visit the Concordian Police Department’s precinct to check up on Maddie, who is still in police custody. One of the police officers say that Maddie was supposed to be free to go, but she suggests she wants to stay. Issac, Diego, and the player then arrive, wanting to explain about the incident. Maddie stops them, saying that she has an evil spirit inside her and that she is dangerous, but Minerva reassures her that she doesn’t and the thugs were to blame if she didn’t defend herself. Several sparks and spin energy appear around Madeline and a "chumimi~in" sound was heard. A ghostly orb appears around Madeline again and dashes all over the room, even breaking the custody lock. The officer becomes afraid and runs while Diego grabs Maddie’s arm to stop the madness, putting pressure into it to send the ripples all over her body. Maddie quickly flinches with the yellowish-green sparks around her body, much to Highmore’s surprise. When asked about her sudden surprise by Arthur, Highmore answers that she has known Spin and Ripple before, and it was the first time that she saw one using both. She then tells Maddie and her friends to meet her in her mansion. At Lady Highmore’s mansion, many houseguests including the Flying Squad are seen talking to each and observing the rooms they are in. At Minerva’s salon where Lady Highmore, Maddie, Issac, the player, and Diego are drinking champagne, the former interim mayor tells Maddie that she is both a Spin and a Ripple user, forcing Diego and Issac to reveal their Ripple and Spin respectively. Answering the player’s question of how did she know both of them, Highmore tells the team about her adventures in Asia. Over 20 years ago, Highmore traveled to the fields of Tibet after hearing someone talk about the location of both Spin and Ripple. Upon stumbling across a trail of rocks, she began to follow them and see a shrine containing several monks performing Sendō, a martial art connected to Ripple. After meeting with the master, Highmore then went to Naples, Italy two years later and saw an execution taking place involving the Spin after 6 months of unsuccessful searching. Diego also tells Rook that real reason he ran off before in the airship is that he doesn’t want anyone to see his powers, not just wanting to distance himself for Charlie’s death. A green glowing orb appears out of Maddie, revealing it be a pink floating axolotl-like figure with several green triangles on its body including a star on its forehead, shocking Issac and Diego and to the confusion of the player. Issac and Diego then reveal that Maddie has a Stand, which was the same “evil spirit” that made Maddie defeat the thugs and break her out of jail. Later at Capitol Peak, Evie, Katherine, Giulietta, and Rose are all seen at town square where the guillotine was formerly present placing dummies and a metal wall behind them. Evie then goes to the spot marked with an X and loads 3 rounds on her revolver. After getting some encouragement from her lover, Evie smiles a bit and shoots a dummy near the bullseye and another one in the abdomen. Nervous, Evie holds on the grip tightly and aims for the bullseye on the third dummy with Giulietta looking at a blade seemingly about to strike Evie. Evie bites her lip and fires the gun, surprisingly spitting out three bullets at different directions and blowing every dummy off their stand. While being confused of the situation, Katherine suddenly gains a vision of Giulietta clenching her sweating fist, with a figure coming out of her body and touching the bullet Evie fired, splitting it into three. She then suspiciously looks at Giulietta, but turns her attention to the Archivist. In the countryside, 7:00 PM, a speeding projectile goes right through a rock, splitting it into pieces. Another projectile slices a tree in half and cuts the branches, disturbing the birds. The two projectiles turn back to the sliced tree and turns it into a carving of Concordia. The carving drops on a woman’s hand and her fingers grow back. She then carves a quote under the carving, “1900: New Millennium, New Beginnings”. Isaac compliments Maddie’s ability to control the Spin but has to work a bit on her Ripple. Maddie goes to a pond where Diego is looking at the ripples in it. The gentleman touches the pond and breathes, forming several ripples over the pond. Diego then tells to Maddie that Ripple requires concentration and breathing in order to control it. Maddie looks over some blooming flowers surprised, with Diego revealing that Maddie has great potential of controlling her Stand including the Ripple and Spin. A day later, Maddie goes to the countryside again to meet with Issac and Diego, saying she’s ready. A one-week training montage begins, with Maddie attempting to control the Spin and Ripple. After going through strenuous work and suffering painful headaches, Maddie takes a break and looks at the setting sun. Determined to achieve her goals, Maddie starts training harder days later, even unintentionally stretching her arm and drilling her fist to a boulder and turning several leaves, branches, and water into weapons that dent a metal sheet Issac is holding. After being praised by him and Diego, the trio go back to Concordia. Inside the airship, Giulietta is seen painting Viola‘s lab, placing every detail and thing she could find in the canvas. After finishing it, she writes her signature on the painting, with the same writing placed on the lab table, much to her surprise and confusion. She tries to clear the signature with the cloth, only for the table to have a large white spot with distorts of brown. Shocked and frusturated, Giulietta paints on the white spot, turning the painting normal. She becomes confused and leaves with the painting for it to dry. After leaving the airship, Giulietta hears someone shouting help. She goes closer to the noise to find Rose having her prosthetic hand stuck in a blue vortex. After freeing her with the help of Evie and Viola, Rose gets pushed back from the ground, with the vortex disappearing. Viola notices that Rose’s arm has changed, which was metal plated and futuristic with glowing blue energy, much to the Squad’s confusion. Rose touches a nearby phone booth for help, only for it to become centuries more advanced than the present counterpart, scaring Rose and the others. Not knowing what to do, Giulietta throws chloroform at Rose’s face, sedating her. In the residence of Arthur Wright, Bernadine comes to him to give the Chief a goodbye kiss. Arthur then leaves and drives his vehicle to work. A standing figure in a hat and trenchcoat stares at the driving Arthur, who dismisses them as a nuisance. He reaches the airship and leaves the car, only to find a taped note on his car door, which says “follow me”. Arthur then sees red cards forming a trail and follows it. After 32 minutes of pointless traveling, he goes to a warehouse storing boxes of glass labeled John Valeen’s Glass Factory. Annoyed of wasting precious time, Arthur is about to leave the warehouse until a mysterious figure appears in his sight. The figure slowly approaches Arthur, who draws his gun at them sweating. As he grips tightly on the gun, the figure goes to a shelf with boxes, pulling out a iron rod and throwing it at Arthur, who is knocked down as he futily fires at the figure. The figure approaches the Chief, who gives him a threat that he will either participate in the race or stay in Concordia and have the Concordian Flying Squad killed. The figure then warps through the boxes and the shelf and leaves Arthur there with his breath getting hotter at any minute. A few days later far from the entrance of Concordia, about four thousand competitors, native to Concordia or immigrants from Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania, are seen on their horses, camels, vehicles, or feet ready to race. A announcer then talks about the race, saying that from Concordia, Massachuttes to San Diego, California, they will face and complete nine stages or they will be disqualified from the race. The racers read their papers, with the Concordian Flying Squad’s airship seen flying over the contestants. Three racers are seen walking to their horses and ready their supplies; they were revealed as Maddie, Issac, and Diego. A man walks to the platform and ignites several firecrackers one by one. The firecrackers then burst to the sky and explode, revealing a humungous green word that says “'''GO!” The racers then run past the the starting line and ready themselves for the first stage... To be continued... Category:MOTP: ABA Episodes